Website Facelift

[Crusher]

19. The "Home" button doesn't keep its size on the Download Page.
20. Some people don't consider e-mails as links. Maybe a quickbar on the side of the template with Sysop e-mails, I dunno. The helpful links might be seen as, ingame help like the fan-sites. Also, don't forget that Flash that someone made, the tutorial of drak.
Having a problem?
E-mail
Mars
Flisk
Help@drakkarzone.com
All hyperlinked to e-mail the appointed name.

20a. People might not know what to look for if they have a problem. I was thinking of maybe a troubleshooter page, link to the forum inside the page with a bit of information on what to do. Something to that sort. Or just have somewhere describing "If you're having problems with your game, e-mail someone@drakkarzone.com or post |here| on our free forums."

[flisk]

the whole reason we chose to redo the website was to consolodate the pages and make the entire website smaller. The previous version had just at 55 different pages to navigate through. That's waaay too many. I really wanted to cut the number of pages down and right now it's down to about 15. And to be honest that is still too many.
The email links is another issue I'm trying to figure out how to resolve. Alot of times email bots will surf the website and extract email addresses and then start spamming that email address. This is a major problem. When we had our emails posted on every page of the previous layout I was getting close to about 700 spam emails a DAY. About a year ago I removed the email links from the main page and within 6 months the amount of spam I got was down to about 400 a day. Now, with the new layout I've put the emails on a page other than the home page in attempts to thwart this issue. I know that there is a bot command I can put into the html of the website but it simply does not work. It was actually on the first layout since day 1.

Now, some of you ask, why not get a spam filter?
Spam filters suck. They have no clue what is truely spam and what is not. I've tried it before, only to find that player's emails have been dumped into the spam folder along with all the other REAL spam I was sent.

[Tirith]

I'm not very knowledgeable as how spam bots work, but here is an idea, instead of having the emails on the page as links or text, how about having them in an image? A bot can't read the words off of a picture, but people can, so it would be a good way to get around those bots.

[flisk]

I've thought about that, but i'm not sure if i like putting it onto graphics.
It's an idea though.

[Mars]

while this is an idea, I think most people want it to be just a click type action. i.e. if I need to contact someone, click here and it launches email already filled out with addressee. if it's a graphic/pic they have to write the info down and more chance of a mistake and email not getting where it needs to be.

[Crusher]

I thought you could just hyperlink the e-mail to the image with email:mars@drakkarzone.com or something to that sort.
Also, I tihnnk something that might make the Forums banner fit better is to Fade to Black. Yes, it's a song too... :p

[flisk]

It's not the link that is on the page of the website, it's the hyperlink that the bots grab.

[Crusher]

Oh, have a forward thing then. I knew of a place where it would relay links by typing in another. Like, I might have a setup where any computer could type http://www.w3rd.dl and it would forward it to http://www.kingdomofdrakkar.com or something to that sort. Then have the e-mail appear on the bottom of the page, along with the actual e-mail as an image on the page, so that those type of bots might not catch it. If they even use that type of method because some people use hotmail or another e-mail program that won't pop-up when they click, so they have to select and copy it. If it's an image, they will have to type it in. Simplicity is the key to getting people's attention. The budweiser frogs is a good example.

[Darge]

bring back a link to the norkan times, and maybe update it more often than 4 times a year. It shows you care

[Mars]

I think we are moving towards the diaries instead of the Norken times.
But we will look at that too.

[Stormwind]

Diaries should be "Out of Game" information on what sysops are working on.

Norken times should be "In-Game" information regarding upcoming happenings and events.

-Stormwind

[Dragonslayer]

can simply put a random *deletethis* in the e-mail, so you get A href=mailto:Fli*deletethis*sk@kingdomofdrakkar.com


Or get Someone to do e-mail screening, if brad has space in the budget.

[LadyKris]

I liked the News, was more fun reading.

[flisk]

I have a good feeling we have not seen the last of the Norkan Times.
It too is getting a face lift <smile>

[Crusher]

Add "For more screenshots, Click here" under the screenshots in the downloads section.

Store needs the same theme as the rest of the site.

[Roland]

Looks great! But one thing really bothers me about it...the HOME link, firstly the crosshairs on it really degrade the image of the page, and it just looks out of place and thrown in. Imho, the BEST place to put it would be to resize the blue buttons along the top, and make one that says HOME on it, and put as the first button going left to right.

[Merlin]

on the screenshots page, there is a lvl 6 crit in cob tree town..

people might start to wonder why they cant go there at lvl 6..normally..


just a suggestion.


also another thought would be to post screenshots that players take?


i'm sure people have a few lying around.

*Merlz*

[Mars]

it's very easy for a rerolled lvl 6 crit to be in cob.

[Crusher]

No, that's 6 experience. Flisk always had trouble with dragons...

[Merlin]

i did state normally

*Merlz*

[alanapp]

To put a spam proof e-mail address on the website, you can use encryption, for example <a hrefx72;&#x61;&#x6b;&#107;&#x61;r&#46;&#x63;&#x6f;&#x6d;</a>

would be Email us here on the page and when clicked go to drakkar@drakkar.com. Give me the address and text you want to use and I'll be happy to give you the code.
Another idea is to use a favicon,many companies are using them now, to do this make a 32 by 32 or smaller pixel pic and save it as a ico file.Photoshop does this well. Add the code <link rel="shortcut icon" href="drakkar.ico"> and place the icon in the root directory where your index page is. to see what this does,go to the cnn website, mark it as a favorite in Explorer, close the explorer . When you open it back up and look at your favorites, the image will be next to the link making it stand out. It also will show up beside the link in the address bar.


-edit to realign the page.
-flisk